It's almost become trite to hear that Google has bought another company that deals in photo editing software. Yet, here we are again. Today, Vic Gundotra announced on Google+ that Nik Software, creators of the impressive Snapseed app that we saw demoed at CES this year, will be joining the Mountain View team.

While there's no indication yet just which Google product will see the benefit of this new talent, it can only mean good news.

Just in time for the fall TV premieres airing over the next couple of weeks, Shazam has announced that its 'Shazam for TV' service now supports any show on any channel.

The app now has a staggering quarter of a billion users, and those in the U.S. will be able to access cast information, music featured in shows, trivia, social feeds, and other tailored data such as stats for sports games.

On September 6, Amazon announced three new Kindles: a 6" non-Android model called the Paperwhite (with or without 3G), the 7" Kindle Fire HD (16 and 32GB), and an 8.9" Kindle Fire HD (16 or 32GB), while updating the hardware and dropping the price of the original Fire to $160.

So, you were thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire HD, rooting it, and throwing a ROM on it for an impressive $200 tablet? Turns out that idea may not work out as well as we initially thought: both the Kindle Fire HD and the second gen KF have locked bootloaders. Bummer.

This may not mean that custom ROMs are impossible on these devices, only that it's more improbable.

For those who may not know, the bootloader is responsible for checking the firmware's signature before a device boots.

While many people are patiently waiting for the Note II to hit the streets, the CM team has been working to bring the latest Android build to the original Note variants. CM10 has actually been available for the AT&T Note for a few days now, but the first nightly for the international variant just showed up.

Definition: A "nightly" is a bleeding edge release that is built on a daily basis, usually at night after a full day's worth of new code has been committed.

A couple of days ago, we ran a story about a circulating rumor that Google had expressed strong concerns with the launch of an Acer phone powered by Chinese Internet firm Alibaba's Aliyun OS. As the post explained, Alibaba claimed that Google had warned Acer that releasing the CloudMobile A800 could result in the search giant "terminating its Android-related cooperation and other technology licensing with [Acer]." These rather strong words led to speculation over just what the issue could be with Aliyun, and whether Google had issued the warning at all.

If you've ever cruised through r/AndroidThemes, then you've probably seen some pretty impressive homescreens floating around. Some are ultra-minimal. Others are highly functional while still retaining an appealing look. Then, there are those that just stand out from the crowd because of a well thought-out layout.

The Sci-Fi Interface Theme by Reddit user Futant55 is a shining example of the latter. It has the look of something very difficult to create, but is actually just a few widgets precisely placed to fit in perfectly with the custom wallpaper.

We already know that the Galaxy Note II will be making its way to Big Red eventually, and we assumed it would look identical to the international version. And it basically does, according to some leaked images that showed up today. Only, it has Verizon branding in places that no phone should ever have carrier branding of any kind: on the home button. I really hope this is a test design.

If you listen to SiriusXM on your Android device, the newest iteration of the application should be of interest. While the update brings the normal bug fixes and enhancements, it also packs two new useful features: access to On Demand radio and offline caching for select shows. iOS users saw this update back in early August, so it's good to see these features make their way to Android.